RFK Jr. Faced Tough Questions During Hearing

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Oh, Bernie. For a guy who never stops talking about the “rigged system” and the corruption of the elites, he sure didn’t like it when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pointed out that he’s been raking in millions from Big Pharma. Watching Sanders absolutely erupt when Kennedy called him out during Thursday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing was pure gold. Nothing exposes a fraud faster than a little bit of sunlight, and boy, did RFK Jr. shine a light on Bernie’s hypocrisy.

It all started when Sanders, in typical fashion, launched into his usual stump speech about how America should be just like “every other major country” and guarantee universal healthcare. Because, as we all know, socialism works so well everywhere else. Sanders demanded a simple yes or no answer from Kennedy—essentially trying to force him into agreeing that massive government expansion is the only way to fix the country’s health problems. But Kennedy, who isn’t exactly known for backing down from a fight, wasn’t having it. Instead, he fired back with a plan to make America healthier than any other country rather than just throwing billions into a bloated, inefficient system.

Of course, Bernie, never one to let someone answer a question in a way that doesn’t fit his narrative, immediately interrupted: “It’s a simple question, Bobby.” Simple? Sure. But the real issue is that Bernie doesn’t actually want an answer—he wants a soundbite. He wants Kennedy to say the magic words, “Yes, Bernie, you’re right,” so he can clip the moment for his next campaign email.

That’s when Kennedy decided to drop the hammer: “The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress, too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry to protect their interests.”

And that’s when the meltdown began.

“Oh no, no, no! No, no, no!” Bernie wailed, waving his hands like a man swatting at a swarm of invisible bees. “I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives. Not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers.”

Ah, yes, the classic Bernie Sanders defense—small donors! Grassroots! The working class! He really thought that was going to get him off the hook. Except Kennedy wasn’t playing along. He had the receipts, and he wasn’t afraid to use them.

“In 2020, you were the single largest recipient of pharmaceutical dollars,” Kennedy fired back. And just like that, the room got real quiet—except, of course, for Bernie, who was still sputtering in protest.

And this is where it gets really interesting. Bernie did rake in Big Pharma cash in 2020. According to OpenSecrets, the go-to source for tracking campaign donations, pharmaceutical companies lined up to fill Bernie’s coffers, making him the number one recipient of their money. But since Bernie loves to remind us that he doesn’t take “PAC money,” he spins this as if it doesn’t count. It’s a neat little trick: the donations didn’t come from pharma executives directly but from industry employees, lobbyists, and other operatives who conveniently funneled their money into his campaign.

See, this is how the D.C. game is played. The money may not come in the form of a PAC check with “Big Pharma” stamped on it, but it still comes. And when you’re sitting at the top of the donation list, you don’t get to pretend you’re somehow above the corruption. Kennedy exposed the truth: Sanders is no different than the rest of them. He rails against the system, but he’s been one of its biggest beneficiaries for years.

And that’s why Bernie lost his mind. He wasn’t expecting a challenge. He thought this was just another routine moment where he’d get to grandstand, yell a little bit about the rich, and walk away looking like a hero. Instead, he got called out—on live television, in front of the whole country, by a fellow outsider who refuses to play by Washington’s rules.

The best part? Bernie never actually refuted the claim. He screamed about small donors and flailed around about PACs, but he never said, “That’s not true.” Because he knows it is. And so does everyone else.

This wasn’t just a bad look for Bernie but a reckoning moment. The man who built his career attacking corporate influence just got exposed as a beneficiary of the very system he claims to despise. And no matter how much he protests, the numbers don’t lie.